When not to hire a consultant

Advisory fees are real money, and the honest thing is to tell you when we are not the answer. There are at least four situations where you should not hire a consultant, including one where the main problem is that the decision has already been made.

When the problem is known and the problem is execution

If everyone in the room already agrees what to do, and what is missing is someone to do it, a consultant is an expensive way to confirm a decision you have already made. Hire the capability, or reassign the person who has the time.

When the numbers are not available

We cannot model a recommendation we cannot cost. If the data to support a decision is not obtainable within the engagement window, the first engagement is a data project, and it should be scoped as one rather than sold as a diagnosis.

When the decision is personal rather than commercial

A succession, a founder disagreement, or a decision about which of two people to keep is not a business problem. It needs a conversation, a mediator, or both. A commercial recommendation about it would be worse than useless.

When you have already committed

If a plan is being built because a budget cycle requires a plan to exist, the engagement will produce a document and nothing will change. This is the most common reason advisory work fails, and it is visible in the first conversation, because it is visible in the way the brief is worded.

What a useful first call looks like

Bring the decision, not the symptoms. A good call spends twenty minutes on what you are actually trying to choose between, and the rest on whether we are the right people for it. If the answer at the end is that you do not need us yet, that is a legitimate outcome and we will say so.